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Senior IPS officer
Archana Ramasundram was today appointed the Director General of Sashastra Seema
Bal (SSB). With this, she has become the first woman to head a paramilitary
force.

Ramasundram is
currently the Director, National Crime Records Bureau. She has been appointed
to the post till the date of her superannuation (September 30 next year), an
order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said.

Ramasundram (58) is
the first woman police officer to have been appointed the chief of a
paramilitary force. The SSB is entrusted with guarding the country's frontiers
with Nepal and Bhutan.

The Tamil Nadu cadre
officer was in news in 2014 over her appointment as the Additional Director in
the CBI. Her appointment was also challenged in the Supreme Court after which
she was moved to the NCRB as its chief.

Besides her, IPS
officers K Durga Prasad and KK Sharma have been appointed Director Generals of
the CRPF and the BSF. They will take
over after the incumbent chiefs of these forces retire at the end of this
month.

Prasad, a 1981-batch
IPS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre, was in 2014 unceremoniously removed as the
chief of the Special Protection Group. — PTI

Pakistan’s
investigation into the Pathankot terror attack has made “no headway” and it
will seek more evidence from India to move forward, a source privy to the
developments said today, days after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif promised to
make the probe findings public soon.

“No headway has been made in the
investigation of the Pathankot attack. The ball is back in India’s court as we
need more evidence to move forward,” he said.

The six-member Pakistan
government team investigating the Pathankot air base attack has written to the
Foreign Ministry to seek more “leads” from India. “The team has almost
completed its investigation into the five cellphone numbers (allegedly used for
making calls from Pakistan to India) provided by India. No further leads were
found from these numbers because these were unregistered and had fake
identities,” he said. — PTI

Exactly a month
after terrorists launched an attack on the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot,
it now turns out that a project to install ‘smart fences’ around air bases in
the country has been hampered because of high costs.

‘Smart fences’ of wires strung
across poles are used by countries like the US, Israel and France in war zones.
These are fitted with sensors, thermal imagers and cameras. Any intrusion sets
off an alarm and even indicates the possible intrusion, allowing for
retaliation.

Now, the Ministry of Defence has
asked the IAF to rework the plan and present it to a committee to review
security at all armed forces facilities. The IAF has submitted an audit of all
its establishments detailing the shortcomings and needs of the future. A Rs 5,000-crore estimate for ‘smart fences’
at 54 major air bases has been held back since 2011. The operating cost of
power supply and manpower is separate. So far, only access at authorised entry
gates has been regulated, while chip-embedded smart cards issued to IAF
personnel have not been functional everywhere.

A pilot project to try out
indigenous technology in a forward air base in Jammu and Kashmir has seen
glitches. In total, three air bases in the northern states have such a fence.

Defence Minister
Manohar Parrikar has directed all wings of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to
submit an Action Taken Report (ATR) by February 15 on the steps or initiatives
taken by them on the recommendations of a committee of experts constituted to
help improve service conditions of armed forces personnel.

The directions were
issued a few days ago, sources in the MoD said. The 5-member committee had
presented its report to Parrikar on November 24 last.

The 509-page report
contains as many as 75 recommendations that touch upon various aspects of
pension and service matters, discipline _and vigilance, promotion issues,
military justice reform, issues concerning civil employees and areas of
potential disputes and litigation.

The committee was
constituted on the directions of the defence minister and was claimed to be the
first ever exercise aimed at strengthening institutional mechanisms related to
grievance redressal. It explores upon administrative, legal, psychological and
even social aspects of military life.

Prominent among the
committee’s recommendations is greater personal interaction and opportunity of
hearing in the system of formal complaints and petitions so as to give a better
role to human interaction rather than the one-way noting sheet method and to
assist in providing outlet and catharsis to individuals related to their grievances.

An innovative aspect
propagated greater constructive usage of social media, including initiation of
blogs by senior commanders, to promote an interactive process with the rank and
file. A face-to-face ‘collegiate’ system of decision-making in various aspects
rather than the file circulation method as been suggested along with more
transparency in matters related to promotions and confidential reports.

Recommendations on
military justice reform include steps that can be taken without any legislative
change such as introduction of permanent infrastructure for Courts Martial at
specified stations to reduce ad hocism and reduction of command influence.

Chinese President Xi
Jinping presided today over the creation of five new military regions, part of
the streamlining of the 2.3 million-member People's Liberation Army while also
signaling his firm control over the armed forces. The north, south, east, west
and central regions replace the seven previous regions. The new districts are
being touted as better suited to command joint operations.

Xi presided at a
ceremony at the Defence Ministry in his capacity as head of the Communist Party
and government commissions overseeing the military. Wearing a high-collared
olive green jacket, he presented PLA flags to each of the new region's
commanders and political commissars.

Reinforcing that the
military is ultimately loyal to the party, rather than the Chinese state, Xi
called on commanders to "unshakably listen to the party's command and hold
fast to the party's absolute leadership over the armed forces."

Xi's overhaul aims
to make the PLA more effective as a modern fighting force by transforming it
from one structured around the ground forces to one of joint command in which
the army, navy, air and missile forces all have equal representation. — AP

The other DA's will
be selected from among more than half a dozen competing private companies, and
the MoD has extended the date of filing their bids to Feb. 16.

Under the Make India
category, two DA's would be selected and the government would fund up to 80
percent of the prototypes. After trials, one of the DA's would be asked to
produce the FICV.

When asked if the
private companies endorse the nomination of OFB, Rajinder Bhatia, CEO of Bharat
Forge, one of the competitors, said, "No comment. We hope this one-time
exception and nomination would be discontinued as promised by the MoD."

However, an
executive of another competitor openly disapproved of MoD's decision to
nominate state-owned companies.

"The new
players would contest that this short-listing of one vendor was announced after
the expression of interest [EOI] was published, which did not have this
qualification criteria. This constitutes a change, more like an after-thought.
This ground is sufficient for retraction of the EOI," said an executive of
Tata Group.

Another senior
executive of a private company, also in the race, said there is confusion
whether OFB will be a third DA in addition to two DA's to be selected from
competing private companies.

Bhatia said the
impression being given to industry and EOI recipients is that OFB will be the
third DA.

In addition,
selection of OFB by nomination goes against the purpose of the Make India
policy, which proposes to boost the domestic defense company.

The EOIs were issued
to domestic private major Mahindra; Bharat Forge; Larsen & Toubro; Punj
Lloyd; Tata Power; Tata Motors; Pipavav Defence; Rolta India; and Titagarh
Wagons. The second DA will now have to be selected from these private sector
companies.

The FICV project has
struggled since it was conceived nearly seven years ago and may not ever take
off in the Make India category, said an Indian Army official.

The Army requires
the FICV to have a life span of 32 years. The vehicle should be tracked and
have amphibious capability with full combat load. It will ultimately replace
existing Russian-made BMP-2 infantry combat vehicles.

Questions Over
Selection of the DA

"The basis of
selection of a DA from among the private sector defense companies remains
questionable as there is no strict yardstick to select the DA," said Nitin
Mehta, a defense analyst here.

The commercial
strength of the defense company is given priority over technical ability,
according to the criteria formulated by the MoD.

"“Too much
emphasis in the assessment of DAs has been laid on commercial and technical
criteria, which should have already been taken into account during the
feasibility study conducted for short-listing companies as potential DAs,"
said Khutub Hai, retired Indian Army brigadier general and managing director of
Firmbase Consulting.

"Repeating the
same criteria for final selection is a faulty method and only places emphasis
on size of the company and the defense contracts executed earlier, even if such
contracts have little in common with the FICV.”

Since commercial and
technical criteria account for more than 60 percent of the assessment, Hai
said, "only two or three large companies will qualify all the time.”

Meantime, the Army
has pressed to upgrade existing BMP-2 infantry combat vehicles, ensuring
against the delayed FICV project. The Army wants to upgrade these vehicles so
they can remain in operation post-2017.